I will compete even if that means long-term problems because you live your life for something like this. "I suppose it's all over now." Asked if she was disappointed, she replied: "That's the understatement of the year," before leaving the stadium.O'Sullivan's departure, and the withdrawal of the 800m bronze medallist Maria Mutola, who is suffering from a cold, has created a greater opportunity for Kelly Holmes to gain a tangible reward in the 1500m after her disappointment in the 800m final, where she came fourth after having a painkilling injection to counterract the effect of the hairline fracture which has been discovered just above her right ankle.After qualifying without undue stress in her 1500m first round heat yesterday, she said: "I'm ready to risk everything to run here Since the age of 14 I've wanted to run at the Olympics. Sonia O'Sullivan, who came into these Games with the prospect of winning gold at 5,000 or 1500m or even both, left with nothing yesterday.Ireland's world 5,000m champion trailed home 10th and last in her 1500m heat, still suffering from the stomach bug which caused her to drop out of the 5,000m final on Sunday night."I just had no energy," she said. The Ethiopian world record holder had complained bitterly after his 10,000m final that the track, designed to be as hard as legally possible to encourage fast sprinting, had caused his feet to be badly damaged.Ireland's Games, which began with a startling shower of gold from their swimmer Michelle Smith, have taken a dramatic turn for the worse on the track. Bubka, who won the Olympic title in 1988, had been anxious to erase the memory of his last Olympic performance in Barcelona, where he failed to clear a height. But it was not to be.It was sad blow to the Games, and there was a further one later in the day as Gebrselassie, winner of the 10,000m on Monday, gave up his attempt to win a double here when he pulled out of the 5,000m heats. I have pain in my ankle and in my heart as well."He had incurred his latest injury a month ago, and had been having injections and pills in a vain effort to counterract it.

"When I started to jog there was pain," he said, struggling to contain his emotions. "I knew I could not run, and if you can't run, you can't jump I'm a good fighter but the pain was just too big For me it is a tragedy. "Just so everybody knows," Boldon said, "Christie and I have kissed and made up, like real men should."Bubka, the world's greatest pole vaulter, walked from the Olympic arena in the morning after an Achilles tendon injury prevented him from taking part in the qualifying competition. The 32-year-old Ukrainian, who has set 35 world records, explained at a press conference that he had put his injury to the test early yesterday morning.

He was not in the mood to talk afterwards, but Ato Boldon, winner of Christie's heat in 20.25, went out of his way to mention the row which the two had had after the 100m final, when the Trinidadian had accused Christie of affecting his concentration when he disputed the disqualification. The 36-year-old Briton, emotionally traumatised by his disqualification from the 100 metres final on Saturday night for two false starts, was not expected to do great things in the 200m, but he must have hoped to reach today's semi-final at least. That progression was denied him when he finished outside the first three places in his heat in 20.59sec and failed to claim the place for the fastest loser, which went to Sergejs Insakovs of Latvia with 20.58. Thus Christie, having ceded his 100m title, had made his last impact upon the Olympics as an individual. The sixth day of Olympic athletics became one long goodbye yesterday as a succession of champions disappeared earlier than schedule - Sergei Bubka, Haile Gebrselassie, Sonia O'Sullivan and, with more of a whimper than a bang, Linford Christie. Dong beat Rashid Sidek of Malaysia, while Hoyer-Larsen saw off Heryanto Arbi of Indonesia..

Bang used the knowledge to beat the Indonesian 11-9, 11-8 and reach the final."I watched Susi and studied her techniques and there was always a little missing," said Bang, the 1992 silver medalist.Bang will play for the gold against another Indonesian, 16-year-old Mia Audina.Dong Jiong of China and Denmark's Paul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen will contest the men's final. Indonesia's Susi Susanti was the defending gold medalist and regarded as one of the most dominating players of all time.South Korea's Bang Soo-hyun had other ideas, however, and spent hours watching videos of Susanti. In the men's tournament, the Indonesian pair of Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja rallied to beat Malaysia's Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock, 5-15, 15-13, 15-12. Both doubles finals featured rivals who were quite familiar with each other. Over the past year the women's finalists have met seven times in finals, with Ge and Gu winning five, while the men's finalists have met eight times, with the Indonesians taking seven."We have played them many times and we know their strategy," said Ge.The bronze medals were decided on Tuesday night, with Tang Yongshu and Qin Yiyuan of China taking the women's medal and S Antonius and Denny Kantono of Indonesia coming in third for the men.The singles titles will be decided today, and there will be a new women's champion. The Koreans beat the Americans in straight sets of their consolation game, avenging a 3-1 defeat on Sunday The score was 15-12, 15-5, 15-11. The Americans were forced into the consolation bracket after having their medal hopes crushed by Cuba on Tuesday night in a 15-1, 15-10, 15-12 quarter- final defeat. "Our heart, unfortunately, was kind of split in two in the match last night," the US coach, Terry Liskevych, said. The Americans took leads of 5-0 and 11-7 in the first set, but Korea took eight of the final nine points.